Undergraduate

BBA in Marketing

Marketing Communications

Description of career opportunities

Career opportunities that relate in some way to marketing communications include:

Business marketing (also known as B2B marketing or industrial marketing). Most B2B companies sell their goods or services through a direct sales force and/or third parties such as distributors or value-added resellers (VARS) that install and service the product. The role of a business marketer is to support this selling effort. This might be done by developing brochures and other materials for the sales force, getting publicity in trade publications, placing advertising in trade publications, and arranging trade show appearances.

Sports marketing. People in sports marketing might negotiate sponsorships, work with media to get publicity, do public relations with community groups, manage advertising, run promotions, and do ticket sales.

Entertainment marketing. Entertainment marketing is similar to sports marketing, where you negotiate deals, work for publicity, etc.

General marketing. One can find marketing staff in hospitals, law firms, accounting practices, professional associations, hotels, or any type of business that is large enough to do organized marketing. The nature of the job depends on the type of business, but usually centers around some form of marketing communications such as networking, seeking publicity, doing public relations, or advertising.

Marketing for non-profit organizations. Non-profit marketing takes two forms. “Development” people work with prospective donors and encourage them to give money to the organization. This is a form of personal selling. Marketing people promote the organization through publicity, public relations, advertising, ticket sales, etc.

Advertising agencies or media companies. Almost all ad agencies (or integrated marketing communications firms) have “creative” staff that create advertising or marketing communications and “account” staff that manage relationships with clients. Marketing majors usually are not hired on the creative side of the business: these jobs usually go to people from a creative background. Rather, marketing majors are hired as account managers, to sell the services of the agency to its clients. Similarly, in media companies, marketing majors are usually not hired to create programs or content, but rather as account representatives who sell ad space to potential clients.

The specific nature of these positions varies across industries and organizations. However, most of them involve some aspect of marketing communications.

How many jobs are available?

All of these types of positions are available in the Houston area. Any given organization will not have a large staff, so the positions tend to become available one at a time and often are not available through regular campus recruiting. You will find these positions through networking, referrals, and job listing sources such as Rockwell Career Services and the American Marketing Association Houston chapter.

Who is it good for?

These types of careers are a good choice if you are interested in marketing communications and if you like the particular industry. Note that pay rates tend to be lower in the industries that are most popular: sports and entertainment. Pay rates also tend to be lower for non-profit organizations.

Suggested courses

Courses suggested for students interested in marketing communications are as follows:

Strongly suggested courses:

MARK 4338, Marketing Research

MARK 4362, Applied Buyer Behavior

MARK 4367, Advertising and Promotion Management

GENB 4396, Business Internship (taken in an appropriate industry context)

Suggested courses:

MARK 4366, Business to Business Marketing

MARK 4339, Database Marketing

MARK 4372, Services Marketing

MARK 4390, Marketing for Non-Profit Organizations (may be substituted for MARK 3339 as a requirement in the MARK concentration)

MARK 4363, International Marketing

MARK 4368, Pricing

MARK 4365, Electronic Commerce

These courses should improve your skills for: gathering and analyzing marketing information, understanding buyers; and managing marketing communications; as well as improve your knowledge about specific aspects of marketing that interest you.